Any possibility of a revamp of DT Pro agreements?

[BEAN Harry]

I would have been very glad to support DT team by buying the Pro version, but, up to now, I find rules too inconvenient.

I shall wait until they become more easy-going (may be...).

Regards.

[LooDos]

if u are not online for more than 25 days you can revoke your licence online and then you get a new one.

[johngalt]

Man, I have been out of touch - I knew the Pro was being developed, but I forgot all about it - but this reading, as I understand it (and I see that Qazarr has already asked many of the same questions and had many of the same thoughts as I have had) means that image creation is disabled - is there *any* way to get it back - for example, if my house were to be flooded, and I was not able to get online for a period of time exceeding 25 days, through no fault of my own, how would I go about getting the issue resolved that I am a paying customer and want the license re-instated so I can burn images again? That concerns me more than anything - well, that and the licensing period - I am not really sure I want the added benefit of being able to burn discs with the added inconvenience of having to pay every year, but that is a different ballgame....

Basically what I am asking is is there a system already in place, or at least in the works, to achieve my request above?

[Alco]

1)
Alc does not support Tages and a bit later DT pro will have vIDE feature.

2)
Of course if you like more other similar software applications then you should prefer them: it is a customer choice.

3)
You can continue to use you DT Pro more than 1 year, only updates are limited to 1 year period.

[Jito463]

Regarding question 2, the image mounting functionality of DT Pro will still work, but the image creation functionality will be disabled if it cannot contact the activation servers within 25 days of the last contact (I originally thought it was 2 weeks, but Alco would know better than I).

As for your 3rd question, you aren't buying a "subscription" to DT Pro, you're buying a 1-year license for DT Pro. After that, you have to buy another 1-year license if you want any further updates. The license is the same price each year. Alcohol does the same thing, though admittedly they do offer a lifetime license. And it's possible that the DT team may offer lifetime licenses in the future. But for now, it's a 1-year license.

[Qazarr]

Yes, actually. All of my initial questions remain unanswered except the first one. Perhaps you could revisit them with some more clarity or depth?

It's nice to know I can manually "tag" your servers with a "check for update" process, but that doesn't answer my question of what incentive I should have to pay for that inconvenience. I'm glad to know DT Pro can (hopefully reliably) create images, that would definitely be interesting to me so that I wouldn't have to use a bunch of different software to achieve proper backups. I just don't understand the incentive for me to pay for it when I can use two different pieces of software, (DT and Alcohol, for instance) and have a self-enclosed internet independent software package that can do exactly the same thing for far less money and no yearly subscription fees. Heh, I guess I'm asking you to "sell" it to me since after researching it I can't fathom why anyone would pay for it given the activation/internet check headaches.

I understand that this is your first launch into commercial software and that customer demands are probably much larger than what you anticipated to deal with. Would it be better if I came back in a few months once things have calmed down?

I guess I could simplify everything by giving you my situation: In October I will be flying to Santiago, Chile and from there I will be accommodated in various places throughout the country and into Bolivia over a 4 month period. During this time it is unlikely that I will have stable internet connectivity, and I wouldn't be surprised if my internet access is limited completely to trips to the city to make use of e-mail there. I would like to have Daemon Tools installed on my machine so that I can play some games I've backed up as a recreation in my off time, and my constantly changing lodgings will all but prohibit me lugging around a bunch of unnecessary and easily lost disks.

Given this circumstance, what would you suggest I do? Can you honestly advocate using DT Pro in this case?

I'd really like to buy the software, but it sounds like it's going to be completely useless to me. Not only will it be functional for only 25 days from my last internet "tag" session, I'll be paying a yearly fee for functionality available elsewhere cheaper. Does DT Pro have more support for backups than the free version or something? I just bought the game "Overlord" (which uses a new version of SecuROM) yesterday, and one of the major reasons I came by the site is that I couldn't get it working in version 4.09H with SPTD 1.49b and the most updated YASU... would a DT Pro-created image on DT Pro with SPTD 1.50 work? It sounds like no, that DT Pro is just more convenient for creating images, but that it is completely offset for its inability to function without internet connectivity and its yearly fees to stay updated.

Thank you for the quick response though, I'm sure my penchant for long winded argument isn't exactly appreciated in these pressing times for you guys!

[Novecento]

another huge difference between regular DT and DT Pro is the announced and yet to be released virtual IDE drive which hopefully will render most SCSI blacklistings from CP creators useless.

+ DT Pro can create working TAGES images way faster that VirtualCD!

[Alco]

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

Sorry for any possible inconvenience. We are a bit overwhelmed now by customers messages and their interest after launch of DT Pro.
But in near future we would definitely add more info into our FAQs and online helps.


Here quickly regarding most important questions:

1)
main difference between DT and DT Pro:
DT Pro is capable to make CD/DVD images (DT can only mount images already made before )

2)
after you would complete "check for update", you can use DT Pro up to 25 days without Internet connection

3)
You can use your DT Pro license for an unlimited period of time, but free updates to DT Pro version 4 are limited to 1 year period.

4)
Yes, Adware version has more strict requirements for having Internet connection.

If there is something unclear for you, please post it heere in this thread.

[Qazarr]

When I saw the announcement on the front page that DT Pro was available for purchase, I immediately opened up the page to buy it but I am completely dumbfounded by the lack of information easily available on the software. I've been reading this forum for roughly an hour finding the different features of it, but I'm still not exactly sure why I would want this version over the free version. Nonetheless, I'm having a much harder time being "sold" on the software after reading a bunch of unreliable posts about it. I've gone from "yes, yes, god yes!" to "what the hell is this?" in fact.

Is there a feature list for the software anywhere in an easily accessible place? The publisher's website doesn't compare the differences between the free version and the Pro version.

I only use the software as a drive emulator, for everything from games to applications to data archives and more. I keep a lot of data on my PC to be burned frequently, and I've found it much easier to just store the ISO image instead of keeping a "master copy" laying around. I've become pretty dependent on it lately, and I really enjoy having this convenience so I'd be happy to pay for it.

So that brings me to some questions:

1) If I'm only using this as a drive emulator, what incentive is there to get the pro version? Does it even have any other features?

2) The activation processes I've read about seem to be a huge inconvenience for some one like me who can't guarantee that I won't have an active internet connection for 2 or more weeks at a time. When the program "deactivates" itself, does this mean I cannot even use it to mount images or does it just lose some of its other functionality (which I'm still shady about it even having more functionality)? In either of those cases, what incentive is there for me to pay for this additional headache when the free version has no such inconveniences?

3) Is the yearly re-subscription fee the same as the initial purchase? There isn't even a mention on the distribution site about this being a one year subscription to update services. I'd also appreciate not being condescended to by being told "well, you're just buying the current version, and you get FREE updates so it isn't a subscription" because, pragmatically, it is a subscription. An old version of DT is completely useless to most of us.

From the sound of things as it is right now, buying DT Pro would be asking me to subscribe to a yearly service for something that is available for free, and if I fail to sustain an active internet connection for 2 weeks it will quit working on me. I feel like I'd be put in the situation of having to download the free version along with the paid for version just in case the DT Pro version quits working for some reason, and I don't understand my incentives as a consumer to pay for something that will get outdated without a subscription (where the free version does not) and which will punish me for being unplugged from the internet for extended periods of time (where the free one, again, does not).

I guess this post may seem a bit recalcitrant at this point, but I really want to understand why I should buy this thing. I've used Daemon Tools for years and I would like to patronize its creators some way... it just doesn't seem like this is being executed very well to me.

Regarding the adware version:

Does the adware supported DT deactivate itself without a constant internet connection?

If I do not have an internet connection, is the adware version's ad service incapable of launching?

Does the "adware" in the adware version uninstall with the Free DT Pro distribution?

Thanks in advance for your help!